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The Częstochowa Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto set up by Nazi Germany in the city of Częstochowa in south-central Poland, for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of local Jews during the German occupation of Poland.
The approximate number of people confined to the ghetto at its beginning was around 40,000 and at its peak – right before mass deportations – 48,000.
In late 1942 most ghetto inmates were delivered by Holocaust trains to their deaths at the Treblinka extermination camp. In June 1943, the remaining ghetto inhabitants launched the Częstochowa Ghetto Uprising, which was extinguished after a few days of fighting.
Every day, the Jews were being assembled on Daszyński square for "resettlement" and then transported by cattle train to Treblinka extermination camp: around 40,000 victims in total.
The Częstochowa Ghetto Uprising
A clandestine Jewish Fighting Organisation was formed by Mordechaj Zilberberg, Sumek Abramowicz and Heniek Pesak among others. The organization consisted of 300 members. When the Germans moved to liquidate the Small Ghetto on 26 June 1943 the Częstochowa Ghetto Uprising erupted. Zylberberg committed suicide when the Germans stormed his bunker. 1,500 Jews died in the fighting.
On 30 June the resistance was suppressed with additional 500 Jews burned alive or buried beneath the rubble. 3,900 Jews were captured and put to work in labour camps Apparatebau, Warthewerk and Eisenhütte. 400 people were shot following a selection.
In December that year 1,200 prisoners were transported to Germany. The men were sent to Buchenwald, the women to Dachau (all perished).
However, the much needed foundry camps were revived in the second half of 1944 with around 10,000 new workers sent in from Łódź, Kielce, Radomsk and Skarżysko-Kamienna. On 15 and 16 January 1945, ahead of the Soviet advance, about 3,000 prisoners were sent to the Third Reich; all perished. The remaining 5,200 Jews employed in Częstochowa slave-labor camps were liberated by the Red Army.
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